I WAS interested to read the article in last Friday’s newspaper (Women must not be silenced in the debate on gender identity, The National, January 19). It stated that the organisations Engender, Rape Crisis Scotland, Close the Gap, Equate Scotland, Scottish Women’s Aid, Women 50:50 and Zero Tolerance support the Scottish Government’s proposals to reform the Gender Recognition Act 2004: in summary that these organisations have agreed that the rights of transgender women are not in conflict with women’s rights.
Most people have realised that standing together and fighting for everyone’s rights is more effective than separating into factions and only campaigning for the group that you belong to.
As a liberal, I respect everyone’s right to an opinion. But when a group’s message is hurtful or hateful it is not a violation of anyone’s free speech to withhold a platform, or attend and protest at an event.
As a lifelong feminist, I am acutely aware of the threats and challenges that face women at this time: a predatory US President, an endemic rape culture, the continuing lack of women in positions of power, chronic under-funding of services for women, austerity and poverty, even the lack of research into the menopause. It is a shame that some feminists seem to have been side-tracked from the real business of feminism. Most people understand that allowing transgender women to access rape services or welcoming them into female-only spaces in no way compromises the rights of any other woman.
Stella Hervey Birrell
East Lothian
THANK you for Shona Craven’s well thought out and much needed piece. Shona is quite right that women’s voices are not being heard in this debate. It is a sign of the times that her writing of the column, and The National’s decision to publish it, represents a brave move.
Patrick Harvie’s response to a mother who wrote to him about the issue of women being unable to meet safely to discuss these issues, without harassment or intimidation from transactivists, threw this into sharp relief. Instead of agreeing that it is unacceptable in a democratic Scotland that women cannot meet to discuss legislation that affects them, his response was that he would as soon host a meeting with an Islamophobe or pro-life campaigner.
Harvie, like many left-wing men, has shown his hand with these words. His disregard for women could not be clearer, and he could not have done a better job of highlighting the point that Shona makes in her column.
Jackie Mearns
Edinburgh
AFTER reading Shona Craven’s article, one very good point she makes is that far too often our MSPs use the support of those organisations the Scottish Government pays to show how the policies they then wish to push through are “supported” by the population. This is nothing more than paying for organisations to do “research” then using this biased research to support whatever goal you wish to push through. It’s not democratic and comes across like state-sponsored lobbying.
A growing number of proposals coming from the Scottish Goverment do not have the backing of a majority of people – these will and have cost them votes.
Kenneth Sutherland
Livingston
I HAVE been having a great laugh, as I am sure many of your readers have, at the tale of Lord Lovat (‘Remains’ of clan chief The Old Fox revealed to be a headless woman, The National, January 19).
His Lordship, after changing sides one time to many and ending up on the wrong side at the Jacobite rebellion, was caught and executed. At his execution, people who had gathered to jeer him were killed when the scaffolding they were standing on collapsed. Hence the saying laughing your head off.
Job done, you would think – eh, no, this is after all Scottish history we are talking about. The clan always said they got the headless cadaver away to Inverness, where he was buried in a lead casket.
270 years later they decide to do a DNA test: big mistake. Not only is it not him, it’s a woman. So here is my question: where is he and who is she?
David
North Ayrshire
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